When Dreams Come True in Eastern Cape, South Africa
The elderly woman was troubled for her community. The shantytown in Fort Beauford, Eastern Cape, South Africa’s poorest region, had changed little since apartheid days. Shacks of scrap lumber, cardboard, tin housed an all-black population whose only sustenance was occasional day labor as farm hands or factory laborers. Unemployment topped 50%. Lack of running water, electricity, medical care or adequate food had led to widespread malnutrition and sickness.
But of even greater concern was the spiritual poverty. Even among those who claimed nominally to be Christian, sexual promiscuity, drunkenness, drug abuse were to blame for one of the world’s highest HIV/AIDS rates. Unemployed youth, rebellious and desperate, roamed the streets. A population explosion meant that over half the shantytown residents were children, many of them orphans, their future as bleak as their present impoverishment.
Only the Person of Jesus Christ changing hearts could turn this community around. So the woman prayed. And as she prayed, she saw a vision so vivid she knew it was sent from God. Someone was coming to her community to teach the people God’s Word.
Eight hundred kilometers away in Durban, BCM Africa director Rev. John Peters had received what he terms his “Macedonian call.” A faithful handful of Eastern Cape believers who were acquainted with BCM ministry elsewhere in South Africa had contacted John Peters to ask for help. One of them, Pastor Fullman Masasake, had begun visiting the Fort Beauford shantytown. Would BCM consider partnering to start a church in the shantytown?
So in January, 2010, John Peters and BCM missionary Rev. Harvey Kodi along with a South African church leader Danny traveled the eight hundred kilometers from Durban to Fort Beauford to meet with Pastor Masasake and other believers. As they walked through the shantytown, visiting families and praying with them, a woman approached, excited.
“I know who you are,” she told them. “I received a vision from God just yesterday that you were coming to teach us God’s Word. And now here you are.”
The very next afternoon, Saturday, January 30, H Kodi led a two hour teaching session on developing relationships with God and others. Sitting in the session, rejoicing with all her heart, was the elderly woman who’d prayed that God would send Bible teachers to her community. That evening an evangelistic meeting was held in a believer’s home. When Rev. Kodi gave a message of salvation through Jesus Christ, eight people responded to accept Christ into their hearts. On Sunday, January 31, 2010, a worship service drew more than 50 people to hear Rev. John Peters teach God’s Word. After the service, a feeding was held to offer hungry shantytown children a nutritious meal.
Today a church continues to grow in the Fort Beauford shantytown. While feeding, crèche (child care), and other practical outreaches minister to physical needs, Sunday school classes and Bible clubs are raising up a future generation in the knowledge of God’s Word. And an elderly woman has a front-row seat to watch God’s exciting answers to her prayers.
